History
The property came to the family through Bruce Kelham, and Bob and Alex Phillips began growing fine winegrapes here in 1959. For most of the half century that followed they sold everything they grew, to the names that defined Oakville Cabernet: Araujo, Cakebread, Lail and Bond among them. In 2008 Bruce Phillips held back a small allocation and launched the VHR estate label with winemaker Francoise Peschon, who has made it since.
The Site
Roughly seventy planted acres in the southwest corner of Oakville. Beckstoffer Missouri Hopper, next door, was once part of the original ranch; to the west the land climbs toward the Harlan family's Promontory and Harlan Estate. That range is the point of the property: it crosses from valley-floor gravel to mountain stone inside one boundary.
Vines and Blocks
Seven blocks divide the planting. The higher blocks on the slope sit on gravelly soils, with volcanic rhyolite mounds in the blocks closest to the Mayacamas. The lower benchland blocks have rich, deep loamy soils and give brighter fruit and finer tannins. Within those blocks the family farms small sub-blocks separately, treating each differently in clone, rootstock, row direction and planting density.
The Wines
VHR Cabernet Sauvignon draws on parcels from across the seven blocks rather than a selection from one: dark-fruited and firmly structured, in the classical Oakville register.